In the second part of my Legacy Challenge story retelling, I mentioned that the family’s second born, Lady Fara, was best suited to continue the family in its artistically inclined direction, but Lance, the nerdy boyscout, was the first born in the family.
This made me begin to think about the rules surrounding heirs a lot more closely. This is exactly the kind of thing that I would find dynamically interesting. Here you have a house that art and poetry built, designed and furnished by an insane artist (Lady Cheshire, my founder). Her daughter, being a cheerful artistic prodigy, seems perfectly suited to carry the family along the same lines and the house is certainly equipped to help boost Lady Fara’s artistic endeavors, with it having a fully loaded inspiration room already.
But is that a good thing or a bad thing? In past versions of the rules, you were allowed to pick your heir from among all your children to decide who would take over when your main Sim dies. And in that case, I would be picking Lady Fara. But that got me thinking: Maybe being forced to take on Lance as the heir isn’t a bad thing. Sure I *started* out making my house a sanctuary of art and creativity, but being forced out of my comfort zone with a child who looked like he was gearing up to be a science and knowledge Sim. Not to mention, the point structure of the Legacy Challenge encourages a diverse playstyle.
Today’s post is going to be a poll! I want to hear from you, the fans about how you would like me to address this rule in the official Legacy Challenge rules:
[yop_poll id=”2″]
I think it would make a great handicap, but I think it might be problematic if you’re playing a legacy where passing certain genetics along is important.
As always, it’s great to hear your thought process though!
I think it should be rotational. If you start with a female heir, then your first born male is then the next generation heir. When the male is grown, their first born girl would be the next heir. And so on.
That is such a great idea!!
I like this idea a lot too! Not only would it add a bit of challenge to the idea of traits, but also making it a bit harder in that you may not get your rotational gender in the first try.
I find this a bit confusing, since i usually just like to keep going, but it doesn’t really make sense to have two generations within one family. That makes no sense.
What do you mean by two generations in one family? You mean an heir and spare? What Jennifer proposes is that you rotate boy/girl. So if the founder is female next generation heir is male. So this means it may take multiple pregnacies before the right gender heir is born. I like this idea.
My only question is can you still have extra children if the right gendered heir is born first.
Yes you can still have extra children. The number of children you have would be completely up to you.
Also I am a bit confused by the 2 generations in one family comment as well as having multiple generations in one Legacy house is actually quite common in the challenge.
I honestly do not want to have multiple pregnancies though, counting that aging is on and will take up most of the time to be alive in the sims world, counting that their ages are very short. Plus, i may not want that many children if it doesn’t turn out how i want it. I
I had a sim once who would not give birth to a girl, and i would have to cheat. I honestly do not like this idea, counting that this could not turn out well.
If you don’t want multiple pregnancies you don’t have to have them.
Sorry for delay in response I spent the entire night on the road driving back to Virginia from Florida. This would add additional challenge but if you don’t like having additional children you wouldn’t have to. I still don’t understand what you mean by 2 generations in 1 family.
Maybe this could be optional but you would have to decide before you have your first baby in your legacy. Sometimes I get bored and this mixes things up a little for me when I’m playing. 🙂
Optional but I’m going to always do that from now on.
I love the challenge of only being able to use the first born or the first born of the founder’s gender. It keeps it interesting and allows you more varied gaming options.
A ‘Follow the Founder’ option could be implemented. With this option bonus points (for those who keep score) would be added for each generation to follow the example of the founder. For instance yours started with an Artistic theme. You could use the Follow the Founder option to select the child with those tendencies to carry on. Going ‘Against the Trend’ option could allow for a Diversity theme allow points for each generation that goes against the trend set by the founder.
Another thought…. how easy would it be to add an Inspired type trait (?) perhaps your nerdy boyscout could still be the heir with the addition of the applicable traits.
Just random thoughts… I will aide by whatever you decide. After all the creator of a challenge that has withstood the test of all the evolutions of the Sims has got to be doing something right.
*Typo* ‘I will aide” = I will abide
What if the third born is evil and ambitious, could she kill her siblings and assume the role?
Hahaha well, that would certainly add some flavor to your Legacy!
I think it’d be cool to choose a Sim child with traits that maybe don’t coincide with the Founder. That way you build onto the house to have objects that fit the heirs traits. Eventually you’d have a house that has rooms or objects suited to just about any traits future heirs may have.
I like a challenge so I picked the first born option. However, I thought that in TS4 we can’t randomize traits (atleast for children). So, wouldn’t we be able to make the first born what we wanted, if that’s the case?
Just started my first legacy challenge. Not keeping score, just doing it for fun and I’m loving it. I usually rely on cheats heavily so not using them or mods forces me to play differently and it’s really fun. Never been so excited for my sims paycheck to come in, lol.
We are working on a way to randomize traits via our website 🙂 It won’t randomize them in the game, but it will spit out a random trait for you to then use in the game.
In my current legacy, I went with the first born for one of my generations even though he had the Evil trait which was something I had never dealt with in the past. It ended up being my most entertaining generation because he married a Good Sim and then had an Insane heir. The second born had ALL the perfect traits I would typically use during my game and while I could have switch the status of heir to the second born, I stuck with my Evil Sim . I was glad that I mixed up my typical game play. However, I also had twins that had greenish-brown hair that looked terrible. I ended up keeping one of the twins as heir, but dyed their hair. I prefer to use their natural features, but I couldn’t stand the hair colour. Forcing people to take visual traits they don’t like just because a Sim is first born might be too much for some people.
I voted for the first born rule, but I would suggest it could be an optional rule that gives bonus points if used throughout the whole challenge. I’m definitely going to implement it in my next Legacy.
I’ve played legacies where the first born turns out to be just like their parent(s). I find that kind of boring. I don’t try to create the same sim over a course of generations, I’m trying to create a diverse family with several skills and interests. So, oftentimes I get bored of a sim (regardless of birth order) that is not very unique in their traits or needs in comparison to the rest of their family.
So, choosing the first born doesn’t always pan out to be a challenge. I try to make each sim regardless of birth order pursue the interests their traits suggest, but also what their wants suggest. For instance, a sim of mine rolled a LTW to get to the top of the Medical career after going to the hospital on a field trip, despite the fact that his traits didn’t really support that, but I thought it would be an interesting route to take.
What I’ve always liked about the legacy challenge is the diversity of characters you get to play with, being forced to randomize the traits. Compared to some other challenges out there (most of them based on the legacy challenge in some way) it is very “free” and let’s you explore the game in directions you’d otherwise never have thought you’d enjoy. Having to choose the firstborn sounds very limiting in that respect.
I voted against it, but as an optional rule like matriarchy/patriarchy or the family traits it could still be interesting to try!
The rule to pick the first one seems strange to me since we have no ability to randomize traits. May be it would be more interesting to pick the child who has no similar traits with the founder (previous gen. heir)?
Actually we are working on a way to randomize traits from our website 🙂
you could always assign each trait a number and then players use random.org to roll a number which will correspond to a trait.
I like the idea of picking a favorite, but at the same time i like the idea of just to keep going with the first born. I think it should be those two options, and just be able to pick one.
However you will decide, I will keep on playing with the first heir of the same gender as the founder like I always did, because i don’t influence the gender of the children and so you it could happen that you have to have a lot of children before you get an heir and a spare, but it’s a personal challenge, so i’m still interested in your thoughts.
we could just draw the traits out of a hat lol. more work on our part.
I’ve actually got a way to randomize traits planned out that will not involve a hat…or much work at all, on your part 🙂
I have a genetics question. Was Lady Fara born with her blonde hair or did you change it yourself?
🙂
She was born with that hair.
I always add additional challenge to my legacies that are within the rules, but created variance. I already had made this rule for myself. I’m in full support of it being an actual rule. If optional, I’d still do it.
Well, there’s a username I haven’t seen in forever! Hey Jeff! How are you?
That’s what I get trying to post from an iPad.
Very good. Sims is pretty much the only place I use this handle these days.
Post fail.
Can’t wait to see how the new legacy will work. I am anxious to see if I can get past 3 gens before the game becomes to corrupt to continue.
I enjoy the idea of having the firstborn be the heir. But added to that, I also like the idea of a gender specific heir. Either a matriarchal or patriarchal family where only the females or males can be chosen as heir. It was also suggested in the comments above that a switch gender in each new generation be used. Girl/boy/girl/boy/etc. I played a patriarchal legacy up to Generation 8/9 once and it was so much fun! The second generation had five or six girls before the son (one and only) was born. It was challenging and I enjoyed that. Then again, I’m not one to cringe too much when I have a full household either.
Please… Don’t. If people want to do that, then sure, but I feel like it would hurt the experience for some, including myself.
Well my family only has 1 child, that is how I play, I use to make it a boy by eating the apples. I do not know if you can decide what sex you want your child to be in the sims 4. If you cannot, then I would like the first born to be the heir male or female. but would like to keep the Family name.
Does anyone know if you can choose the sex of your baby and can you keep the family name
I never thought of a rotational legacy, switching each generation to the other gender—that sounds quite interesting. And you might not get the gender needed on the 1st try, so adds to the challenge.
In Sims2, I had a “Double Legacy” where the mother’s family name was handed down to her 1st born daughter who stayed in the main legacy home, and the 1st born son carried on his father’s name in a home of his own. Gen 2 was killing me with a 1st born son, then twin sons, and then finally my female heir showed up! I was scared I’d have to wait for someone to die or grow up and move out before I could try for a girl!